181 Million Americans Watched 40 Billion Online Videos in January

The comScore Video Metrix service reported this week that 181 million U.S. Internet users watched nearly 40 billion videos of online video content in January 2012. The average viewer watched 22.6 hours of online video content that month. This is down slightly from December 2011, when 182 million U.S. Internet users watched 43.5 billion videos for an average of 23.2 hours per viewer.

During the month, nearly 40 billion videos were viewed, with Google Sites generating the highest number at 18.6 billion, followed by Hulu with 877 million, and VEVO with 717 million.

In December 2011, Google Sites ranked as the top online video content property with 157.2 million unique viewers, while VEVO ranked second with 53.7 million, Yahoo Sites ranked third with 53.3 million viewers, Viacom Digital with 45.8 million, and Facebook.com with 42 million. So, the top four properties dropped, but Facebook was up month over month.

The comScore Video Metrix data for YouTube partners in January 2012 revealed that video music channels VEVO (50.6 million viewers) and Warner Music (29.7 million viewers) maintained the top two positions. Gaming channel Machinima continued to rank third with 23.8 million viewers, followed by Maker Studios Inc. with 12.5 million, FullScreen with 11.6 million and Big Frame with 8.2 million. Among the top 10 YouTube partners, VEVO demonstrated the highest engagement (62 minutes per viewer) and highest number of videos viewed (696 million), while Machinima exhibited the second highest engagement (60 minutes per viewer) and number of videos viewed (347 million).

The December 2011 YouTube partner data revealed that video music channels VEVO (53.5 million viewers) and Warner Music (31.7 million viewers) had the top two positions. Gaming channel Machinima ranked third with 22.7 million viewers, followed by Maker Studios with 10.4 million, FullScreen with 9.7 million and Big Frame with 8.3 million.

Among the top 10 YouTube partners that month, VEVO demonstrated the highest engagement (67 minutes per viewer) and highest number of videos viewed (782 million), while Machinima exhibited the second highest engagement (64 minutes per viewer) and number of videos viewed (340 million). So, month over month, VEVO, Warner Music, and Big Frame were down, but Machinima, Maker Studios, and FullScreen were up.

A Closer Look at Machinima

Last month, we took a closer look at VEVO. So, this month, let’s take a closer look at Machinima.

The word “machinima” is a loose hybrid of the words “machine” and “cinema” and is used to describe the process of creating real-time animation by manipulating a videogame’s engine and assets.

The company Machinima is a “next generation” video entertainment network for video gamers, providing a broad range of gaming-focused editorial and community programming for the hard-to-reach 18-34 year old male demographic. Worldwide, over 149 million unique gamers viewed in excess of 1.3 billion videos on Machinima January 2012, making it the top Entertainment Channel on YouTube. In addition to YouTube, Machinima properties are also found on other global distribution platforms including Facebook, Twitter, iOS and Android.

In addition to producing expansive editorial content, the company’s suite of applications, tools, and technologies motivates players to be highly engaged and active with their favorite games. Machinima builds enthusiastic communities around and in between game launches and DLC releases, distributing “official” videos and producing custom content.

About the author

Greg Jarboe is president of SEO-PR, which provides search engine optimization, public relations, video marketing, and social media marketing services. He's the author of "YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day," a faculty member at Rutgers University and Market Motive, as well as a frequent speaker at SES conferences.

If you use rich snippets to markup your videos, you may want to double check that Google is still showing them. Reports indicate a huge reduction – with estimates as high as 44 percent – in the number of video snippets from Google's search results.
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